Christian Slater On Playing A Gay Pornographer

Christian was thrilled to get a call from James Franco inviting him to play a creepy gay peddler of young flesh.

Transcript[cheers and applause]
CONAN: That was incredible.
You got the moves.
You got everything.
Thank you so much for being here.
CONAN: thank you so much --
CHRISTIAN: thank you so much for having me.
CONAN: you have "Mr. robot."
People love that show.
Congratulations on that.
Great reviews for "king cobra."
CHRISTIAN: It’s really good.
Thank you, man.
CONAN: "king cobra," you and James Franco, you play gay
pornographiers, is that correct?
Each with -- that's the character.
Each with young actor love interests.
I believe we have a poster here from the movie.
For you and James Franco, there are same-sex love scenes.
CHRISTIAN: correct.
CONAN: I'm curious, how DO YOU, as an actor, how DO YOU
approach that?
That's fascinating.
CHRISTIAN: just touch my nipple.
[cheers and applause]
That's how you do it.
CONAN: so I'm a very good actor.
CHRISTIAN: you're really good.
You have it down.
CONAN: I just jumped in.
Andy, grab a piece of that.
It's amazing.
CHRISTIAN: come on, andy.
[cheers and applause]
[Laughter]
CHRISTIAN: this is exactly how I was this morning.
ANDY: forbidden fruit.
CONAN: he's very shy.
He's a farm boy.
ANDY: I just got out of the seminary.
I don't think I should.
[Laughter]
CHRISTIAN: you got to feel the fear and do it anyway.
That's how I got through it.
Feel the fear.
Feel the fear.
CONAN: I would say, as an actor, that's very challenging.
CHRISTIAN: it was.
No, it definitely was -- when James Franco asked me if I'd be
interested in doing this project, I read it and I went, hm,
wow, I really do have to think about this.
This is definitely out of my wheelhouse.
I did have a lot of anxiety and fear about doing something like
this.
But then I just said, I'm an actor.
I asked my wife.
She said, no, you should absolutely go do it.
I had her support.
I dove right in.
CONAN: that sounds interesting that she's like, you should
absolutely do it.
Absolutely!
You go kiss those men!
ANDY: kiss 'EM!
CHRISTIAN: there is something erotic about it.
I know.
I don't know what was going on there.
Very exciting.
Then I had gary clayton, the young man on the poster there, and
the kid -- he's beautiful.
CONAN: that's your love interest.
CHRISTIAN: that's my guy.
He's the discovery that I make.
I meet him and I sort of lure him into my organization called
cobra films and he becomes this great huge discovery and James
Franco plays the guy who works for this other company called
the viper boys.
And he tries to come after my guy and I don't want to release
him and it becomes a story of obsession and control and of
course eventually at the end -- the also based on a true
story.
It gets a little dark at times.